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The Informer
Regular Prisoners * Colonel Hogan - Bob Crane * Corporal Louis LeBeau - Robert Clary * Corporal Peter Newkirk - Richard Dawson * Sergeant James Kinchloe - Ivan Dixon * Sergeant Vladimir Minsk - Leonid Kinskey Camp Personnel * Kommandant Wilhelm Klink - Werner Klemperer * Sergeant Hans Schultz - John Banner Semi-Regulars * Fraulein Helga - Cynthia Lynn * Colonel Albert Burkhalter - Leon Askin * Corporal Karl Langenscheidt - Jon Cedar Guest Stars * Lieutenant Andrew Carter - Larry Hovis * Sergeant Olsen - Stewart Moss * Wagner - Noam Pitlik * Oscar Schnitzer - Walter Janowitz * Sergeant Riley - Richard Sinatra Synopsis The episode begins with the prisoners exiting out of their barracks to be inspected for a night time roll call. After Kommandant Klink, the camp's Kommadant, and his assistant has exited the Kommandant's office, Sergeant Schultz starts to take a head count of the prisoners of Barracks 7. As he does, Colonel Hogan looks at his watch and then nods at Corporal Newkirk, which Newkirk quickly returns with a nod of his own. As Schultz reaches him, Newkirk pretends to be getting sick, as he falls right into a surprised Schultz's arms. During the confusion that follows, Sergeant Olsen sneaks out of the camp and runs into the nearby woods. Once Olsen was safely gone, Newkirk comes back up claiming to be feeling better and the others soon fool around with Schultz's helmet, before they were all sent back into the barracks, after the Germans have finally realized that a prisoner is missing. Meanwhile, inside the woods, Olsen meets up with a shocked Lieutenant Carter, who have sometime earlier escaped from another prison camp. After the two have meet, they begin to exchange flight jackets, as Olsen tells Carter that he is going to take his place at Stalag 13. Carter, after the two had finished their clothing exchange, is captured by a few of the camp's guard dogs, after they have allowed Olsen to flee. Carter then enters the camp and join the other prisoners. The next day, inside Barracks 7, he is questioned by Hogan, while being measured for some fraudulent civilian clothing by Sergeant Minsk. When Carter asks about the questioning, Hogan informs him that it's for security reasons, to prevent a ringer being planted among them. When Carter asks what the tailoring is for, Hogan informs him that it is to make him look like a better convincing German civilian after he finally leaves the camp. Newkirk then arrives, soon being told by Hogan that the football game is to be cancelled because of lack of time. He and Minsk both protests, with Newkirk telling Hogan that the ballgame's sudden cancellation might make the Germans suspicious. Hogan replies that it won't as it'll be the Kommandant himself who'll cancel the game. Newkirk quickly compliments the Colonel, saying that he would be a better magician then he presently is if he could actually pull it off. Newkirk is then introduced to Carter, before he proceeds to show the Lieutenant his pickpocketing ability, as well as a magic trick before leaving after teasing Minsk about his tailoring. When Carter asks about the outside man, Olsen, and what he does while waiting to come back, Hogan replies, they don't know. When Carter then queries about whether any of the German guards would notice that he isn't Olsen, Hogan tells him that only Schultz would notice, but he won't blab because doing so would mean a trip to the Russian Front. Kinchloe then appears, informing Hogan that Klink wanted to see him and that he was still angry about the escape attempt. Hogan then prepares to leave for Klink's office. Colonel Hogan goes to the Kommandant's office, where he first gives some nylon stockings to an appreciative Fraulein Helga and then goes in to see Colonel Klink. Inside Klink's office, Hogan is told by the stern (at least for this episode) Klink why the prisoner has not been placed in the cooler or in solitary after his aborted escape attempt. This leads to a long conversation between them, which was a lecture on Klink's part to convince Hogan why his men should stop trying to escape since no one has yet to successfully escape from the camp while Hogan explains to Klink the reason why his men keep trying to escape: to keep Klink and his men busy, otherwise Klink would be on the Russian Front, as Hogan claims that someone with a lower rank could do the job, including a Sergeant. When Klink asks him if someone has says anything about him going East, Hogan's suppose body language makes him believe that it was Schultz. During their conversation/lecture, Hogan tricks Klink into punishing the prisoners by cancelling the football game. Hogan then leaves, having earlier taken from Klink's cigar box three cigars, one of which he gets Klink to light. On his way out, while smoking the cigar, he sees a new prisoner being taken towards Klink's office, who he tells to only give Klink his name, rank and serial number to the latter's agreement. It is soon discovered though, as he meets Klink, that the new prisoner is actually a spy named Wagner, who has been sent by Berlin to discover if the prisoners were planning any more escapes. Once the new prisoner was inside the barracks, Hogan asks him a series of questions, like he did earlier with Carter. Unlike Carter, the new prisoner fails to give Hogan the correct answers to his questions, especially the one about a nonexistant rapscallion. Hogan tells Newkirk, after Newkirk tells him that the new guy was otherwise clean, to inform the others not to talk to him, which he quickly does. Later, inside Hogan's office, he was explaining to Carter how they plan to get him back to England while Kinchloe was busy working on the coffee pot listening device while complaining about the others using it as an actual coffee pot. During the conversation, as Hogan tells Carter how the device work, LeBeau arrives with some cooked food, before he starts to argue with Kinch over the use of the coffee pot. As this went on, Newkirk appears with news about Wagner going to see Klink. The heroes see the listening device turn on and are thus shocked to hear Wagner speaking on the phone, telling his superior in Berlin about their organization, with Klink listening in. While Klink is protesting to Wagner about the existance of such an organization, Hogan furiously asks how Wagner has found out. Lt. Carter quickly confesses, saying that he didn't know that Wagner was a spy, soon followed by Newkirk, who says that he didn't tell Carter at first, although he was planning to, because Carter was sleeping. Upon hearing all this, Hogan suggests that they eat LeBeau's food. Later, while he was listening to the others debate about what they should do about Wagner, he tells them what they were going to do: They were going to tell the spy everything about their organization, but they planned to make sure that his superiors won't believe him when he passes the information on to them. The prisoners' disinformation plan was quickly put into operation with Hogan telling Wagner, after he has reentered the barracks, that he was going to show him their operation. Hogan then has him blindfolded by LeBeau. The two then takes Wagner outside, and leads him to the camp's dog kennel, which LeBeau then goes into to get the dogs to move. Once the three were inside the kennel, Hogan and LeBeau begins to loudly converse among themselves as though they were leading Wagner towards their secret entrance under the water tower, soon convincing Wagner that they were actually at the entrance. They then pretend that they were going through the tunnel entrance, with access to it being a cord connected to the water tower, when in actuality they were going down the tunnel that was placed under one of the doghouses. After arriving inside the tunnel, Wagner removes the blindfold. Hogan then begins to give Wagner the grand tour of the operation. He first shows Wagner their mint, where they were making fake Marks, which were somewhat better then the real ones, and he watches Wagner take one of them away as evidence. Hogan then shows him their factory, which Wagner thought they were making Lugers for a big escape, but Hogan tells him that they were actually making cigarette lighters to be later sold in Berlin, one of which Wagner then takes with him as evidence. Next, Wagner asks how they were able to get the equipment inside the camp. Hogan quickly tells him about Oscar Schnitzer, the local vet, who was suppose to be bringing into the camp each day new dogs, so that they wouldn't become too friendly with the prisoners, but he was actually driving an empty truck while the dog noises that were coming from inside it were actually coming from a record. He then shows Wagner their sauna which they were using to get rid of the extra pounds that they were gaining from all of the food that they were smuggling into the camp. Wagner is then shown the barber shop, where the prisoners had their hair cut, especially those who were planning to escape, so that they could blend in better with the civilian population after making good their escape. He is then told about Helga being their manicurist to help keep their nails trimmed, to keep attention away from their hands, before he actually saw her inside one of the tunnels. Lastly, Hogan mentions their communication center before finally leaving Wagner. Inside the communication center, after Kinch has gotten the radio working, Hogan informs the sub that was going to pick up Carter that they were going to send him out soon and to pass the information along to London, which the sub commander's acknowledges. Afterwards, as Kinchloe watches, he starts to plan the second half of their operation to discredit Wagner. The next day, a staff car appears, as a nervous Schultz asks Hogan when Olsen would be back. As Hogan reassures Schultz about Olsen, out of the staff car exits Colonel Burkhalter and his staff. After hearing a protest from a nervous Klink, Wagner makes his claim to Colonel Burkhalter that he has discovered a secret organization that was hidden under Klink's nose. Wagner's accusations about Hogan's secret organization produces a 'shocked' response from Hogan when he learns that Wagner is a German spy. After hearing Klink's statement that spies are notorious liars, Wagner tries to prove the organization's existance by first showing the fake Mark that he had taken earlier, but he is unable to produce it, thanks in part to Newkirk being able to make it vanish. Wagner then mentions what they did, before stating the fact that Helga is the prisoners' manicurist, but that idea is rejected out of hand by both Klink and Burkhalter, especially after the latter remembers what she had recently done for him. Wagner next talks about the factory where the prisoners makes the cigarette lighters which were shaped like Lugers, which were then sold in Berlin. After Hogan gives Burkhalter a cigar, Wagner tries to prove that the Luger he has taken earlier is a lighter. But, when he tries to light it, a bullet exits it instead, destroying the cigar that was still in Burkhalter's mouth. After claiming that the prisoners have somehow switched the lighter for a real Luger, he leads Klink, Burkhalter and Burkhalter's staff over to the water tower, to show them the entrance to the tunnels. But, when Wagner pulls the cord to reveal the tunnel entrance, he instead douses Colonel Burkhalter and his staff with water. As this happens, the prisoners laugh. Wagner, now getting desperate, claims that a man had snuck into the camp (Carter), before he sees Schnitzer's arriving truck and chases after it, while claiming that the prisoners were using it to get stuff in and out of camp. He refuses to listen to Schnitzer's warning about the angry dogs inside the vehicle, as he still believed Hogan's earlier story about the only thing inside the vehicle was a recording. But, when he opens the truck's doors, he is shocked to see several angry, barking dogs getting ready to exit the back of the truck. As a now discredited Wagner starts to have a breakdown, and as the prisoners and the camp guards try to round up the dogs, Carter secretly slips into the truck, so that he could be driven out of camp and head back to England while Olsen exits it to rejoin the others. At the same time, Burkhalter, who has seen enough, orders his staff to arrest Wagner, before turning to Klink and apologizing for Wagner's false charges, while mentioning that Wagner would be sent to the Russian Front to help clear his head. While this is going on, Olsen goes back to his spot in the line-up, much to Schultz's happy relief, who then tries to inform Klink that all of the men from Barracks 7 were present, much to Klink's annoyance since he had never asked for a head count. Burkhalter and his staff then heads for Klink's office, quickly followed by Klink. Schultz then leads the prisoners back into their barracks, all except for Hogan who tries to stay outside of the building while everyone else, including Schultz, went inside. Schultz soon comes out and makes Hogan go into the barracks with his men, at which point the episode ends with Schultz leaving. Story Notes * This is the pilot episode of the series. * The episode was done in black-and-white. * The camp was referred to as Camp 13, not Stalag 13. * The year is set as 1942. This is the only time a year is actually mentioned in the series. * A bell is used to alert the prisoners for roll call during the episode. This would be the only time that method would actually be used. For the rest of the series, Sergeant Schultz would announce roll call to the prisoners. * Kinchloe's uniform in the pilot is different from his series' uniform. * Newkirk's uniform in the pilot, like Kinchloe's, is different from his series' uniform. * When the prisoners line up (during various times in the episode), their uniforms presents the greater range of nationalities involved on the Allies side of the war. During the regular series, most of the men in Hogan's barracks all have the uniform appearance of being Americans. * in the pilot, the barracks for Hogan and his men is Barracks 7. For the rest of the series it's Barracks 2. * The tunnels under the camp are shown for the first time. * The Doghouse tunnel entrance/exit appeared for the first time. * The coffee pot listening device appeared for the first time. * What Hogan's organization does is explained during the episode. * Carter, who was a guest star in the episode, started out as a Lieutenant. In his next appearence, as a series regular, he is demoted to Sergeant. * Carter also does his first impersonation as Adolf Hitler. * Sergeant Olsen's escape early in the episode is a spoof of the prisoner escape scene at the end of the war film, Stalag 17. * Unlike how he would be protrayed in the series, Klink is not shown as a buffoon, but as a stern officer. * Helga appears in the tunnels with the prisoners for one scene, acting as the prisoners' manicurist. This never occurs again after the series is picked up. * Burkhalter's rank in the episode is that of a Colonel. * This is Sergeant Minsk's only series appearance. Leonid Kinskey, who played Sergeant Minsk, stated that he was offered a regular part in the series after the pilot was sold, but that he turned it down, as he could not be associated with a series that portrayed Nazis in such a light way. * Schultz's and Klink's catch phrases, "No one has ever successfully escape from Stalag 13" and "I see nothing" respectively, are used for the first time in this episode. * During the first episodes, the setting of Klink's office is in flux as the bulletin board behind him appears and disappears from episode to episode. For the pilot episode, there is a bulletin board. * Robert Butler, the episode's director, specialized in directing TV show pilot episodes. Among the many, shows he directed the pilots/initial episodes of includes Ben Casey, Dr. Kildare, Remington Steele, Moonlighting, etc.--he also directed the first 'failed' pilot of Star Trek, "The Cage". The fact that Feldman and Ruddy hired someone who was essentially a dramatic director to helm their pilot was perhaps an effort to keep things FAIRLY realistic in the beginning of the series. Quotes Early in the episode: * Colonel Hogan: (to Newkirk) Pass the word around, football game is off. * Vladimir: Oh no, Colonel, I was supposed to play full back today. * Hogan: Fullback? Now I know we've got to get the game cancelled. ------------- As Helga was talking to Colonel Hogan before he goes to see Colonel Klink: * Helga: Oh, I have not had nylons in months. * Hogan: I understand there's a war on. ------------- While Hogan was showing Wagner the setup of the prisoners' organization: * Hogan: I'll be at the communications center. * Wagner: You mean there's more? * Hogan: Keeps us off the streets. ------------- Upon seeing that Hogan and his men in Barracks 7 are up to something: * Schultz: I see nothing! ------------- As Wagner is trying to expose Colonel Hogan's organization to both Klink and Burkhalter: * Wagner: This man is operating an underground apparatus so vast and so complicated as to stagger the imagination. Under the very nose of Colonel Klink! * Klink: (chuckles nervously) Colonel, spies are notoriously unreliable. * Hogan: A spy? He's not one of us? * Wagner: Too bad you didn't find it out sooner. ------------- Wagner, who is revealing himself to be a spy to Klink and Colonel Burkhalter and telling them about Hogan's secret organization under the camp: * Wagner: There is a man here who does not belong here, who has escaped in! ------------- Wagner, screaming insanely in German, as he's being taken away by some of the camp guards: * Wagner: You've got to believe me!! Bloopers * Leonid Kinskey is not credited as a guest star because he is listed in the opening credits/montage as a regular cast member. * The weapons that are used by the camp's guards in the series' first season are actually Krag-Jørgensen rifle and Thompson submarine gun and not the Kar98k rifle and MP40 submachine gun that would've been used by the Luftwaffe camp guards during the war. MP40s would replace the Thompsons for the rest of the series, while the Krag-Jørgensens would still be used for the Kar98k. External links * The Informer at TV.com * The Informer at the Internet Movie Database * The Informer episode capsule at Webstalag 13 * Hogan's Heroes Fanclub * The Hofbrau Television stories Category:Season One